Gov. Mike Parson waves to the crowd after he addressed a joint session of the legislature on Monday, June 11, 2018, at the capitol building in Jefferson City. At left is Speaker of the House, Todd Richardson. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson made the decision to cut pandemic unemployment benefits in May after having “conversations” with aides and business owners across the state.
But records show Parson received little in the way of written briefings and hard data from labor experts in his own administration in the run-up to the controversial decision.
In response to a Post-Dispatch Sunshine Law request, the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said there were no related records compiled by the agency and forwarded to the governor’s office in the month preceding the decision.
“I have not located any documents that I consider to be ‘briefings, data or information’ regarding the potential effects of ending federal pandemic unemployment aid,” said Bart Matanic, assistant general counsel for the department, in an email Monday.
Matanic said there were some legal analyses related to the newspaper’s questions, but those are closed under the state’s Sunshine Law.
Rather than review reports, Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones said the governor instead talked to people about the issue.
“Governor Parson had many conversations with (the department), his administration, and business owners across the state,” Jones said Monday.
Read More:‘Conversations,’ not data, led to Parson’s decision to cut off pandemic jobless aid in Missouri | Politics
2021-10-18 21:28:00
